Local Food at the Viroqua Food Co-op

How can I tell if a P6 item is local?

In many cases, the P6 shelf tag will include a checked box for local. P6 may sometimes replace the local label because a significant majority of local items qualify for P6.

Why Buy Local?

Viroqua Food Co-op cultivates truly reciprocal partnerships and friendships with local growers and producers. Together, the VFC and local producers create viable market opportunities for local products, while giving co-op shoppers a convenient connection to fresh, delicious food of the highest quality.

Local food benefits Co-op shoppers, growers, communities and the environment. It’s also fresher and tastes better, because it retains more nutrients and promotes a healthy environment. With a shorter distance to travel, local food uses fewer natural resources, such as oil, in its transport.

In addition, eating local helps preserve and even stimulate the local economy, as dollars spent on local foods support regional farmers and producers. By keeping their wages in the community, much of the income they earn and the taxes they pay in turn go back to the local economy.

Viroqua Food Cooperative is committed to providing product from local sources. And, because we are located strategically amidst a thriving organic farming community, we are able to sell food that is grown close to home. There are few food co-ops in the country who are able to stay as close to home as we do.

At VFC, we color code the signage for our local product and state which farm it comes from. The map above the produce wet case indicates what we define as local and regional.Local is within a 100 mile radius while Regional includes the rest of Wisconsin as well as four neighboring states. You can view this map anytime above our produce case as you enter the Co-op. Visit our “Local Farmers’ Profiles” with pictures and bios of some of our local farmers.

If buying locally interests you, start asking where your food comes from at local restaurants and grocery stores and tell them you’re interested in local food. Write a letter to your kids’ school asking if they could get some local food into their lunch program. Talk to your friends and family about it. The more exposure the concept of buying locally gets, the more potential it has to grow and blossom.

Local Food Links

For more information, see these EAT LOCAL resources:

Research, Education Action and Policy on Food

Online directory and resource for consumers across the world to find food and agricultural products and services from the state of Wisconsin.

These regional food guides include farms, farmers' markets, restaurants, stores and other businesses that sell local food and use sustainable production and business practices.